Amid a year of economic uncertainty and a downtrend in EdTech stocks, BibliU, the EdTech innovator democratizing content accessibility, announced 2022 was a landmark year, beginning with its fundraise of $15M in Series B. It is now at 80 employees, representing a growth rate of 13% year-over-year. And with its ongoing mission to foster sustainability, BibliU is proud to have been awarded a bronze badge by leading business sustainability ratings provider EcoVadis following confirmation of its carbon-negative status earlier this year.
BibliU is experiencing tremendous growth. Half of the U.K.'s higher education students now access content through the BibliU platform. In the U.S., universities and colleges are replacing legacy bookstore models with BibliU's digital-first solution for content. In 2022, BibliU student users read over 9.3 million minutes of content; more than a half-million students from 164 BibliU-supported universities and colleges read 20,975 different titles.
BibliU is delivering significant impact, substantially reducing the costs of textbooks and course materials, ensuring students have access on day one of class to necessary materials, increasing student engagement and improving learning outcomes.
"I am so proud of our accomplishments this year, especially in light of the upheavals in the economy and EdTech specifically," said Dave Sherwood, BibliU CEO. "Affordability and equity in education are pervasive problems and have long been a blocker of social mobility. BibliU's Universal Learning helps colleges break down those barriers."
A 21st-century approach to providing course content
There is an ongoing crisis of declining enrollments in higher education brought on by many factors. The rising cost of college textbooks only adds to this problem. Studies have shown that many students skip buying books even if they know it will affect their grades.
BibliU's Universal Learning solution helps colleges make education more attainable by giving students access to their textbooks on the first day of class, regardless of their ability to pay, at an affordable flat fee. This year, a number of U.S. colleges, including South Piedmont Community College and Victor Valley Community College, migrated their textbook delivery to BibliU to offer these benefits to their students.
BibliU is expanding these offerings to dual-credit students, a group that’s increasing enrollment in community colleges. Ysleta Independent School District, named the best school district in El Paso, Texas, is reducing print inventory by more than $500,000 and providing first-day content access for its Early College Academy and dual-credit students. A partnership with Arden University (Coventry, U.K.) in 2022 allows academics to handpick 7,000 books directly relevant to students' course needs, eliminating irrelevant, outdated course material.
In 2022, BibliU worked with U.K.-based Coventry University and the Green Shoots research agency to quantify the outcome of digital, interactive content on engagement and academic performance. The case study demonstrated a correlation between the frequency of students using BibliU and their higher mean module marks: BibliU users improved their mean module grades by 2.4%.
Simplifying access and improving processes with product updates
BibliU simplified its student billing processes and student access to courseware for its Universal Learning institutions and is providing its partners more flexibility in the opt-out process by supporting rolling start dates.
Security is core to BibliU's integration and Data Transfer solutions. In 2022, it upgraded its FTP Transfer processes to Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP). BibliU currently runs LTI 1.3, allowing more secure data transfer/onboarding for its integrations.
An emphasis on employees
BibliU considers its employees' well-being to be paramount to its success. It offers a generous holiday policy and one wellness day off a month. BibliU allocates a budget for its employees to learn through Learnably and develops its leadership team through training with Korn Ferry.
In November of 2022, a retreat in the U.K. brought together the entire company for the first time since COVID, enabling employees to form connections across departments.
BibliU's employee survey results demonstrate a positive working environment, with a 100% rating on the company's flexible working arrangements and employee confidence in BibliU succeeding in the next few years.
"High-growth companies can experience growing pains, so given our 150% to 200% growth YoY for four years in a row, we're proud to have hit the work-life balance right," said Sherwood. "This has been a landmark year for BibliU – and we're only just starting. We have audacious goals for the years ahead. Our success now and in the future will be a true testament to our team members' talent and the great culture we've built."
To learn more about BibliU's recent milestones, visit their year in review here.
About BibliU
EdTech innovator BibliU is defining the future of higher education by democratizing content accessibility. Designed to address the unique requirements of students, faculty, libraries and publishers, BibliU is a learning enablement platform that empowers higher education institutions to streamline their textbook and courseware workflows to achieve greater student outcomes, affordability and social mobility. With BibliU, colleges and universities can finally deliver on the promise of digitalization, guaranteeing all students have first-day access to the learning content they need. More information is available at www.bibliu.com.